The Supreme Court on Friday repealed an order by tax authorities for the son of the founder of failed consumer loan firm Takefuji Corp. to pay ¥133 billion in taxes imposed on his stockholdings in a Dutch company that were gifted to him by his parents.
Toshiki Takei, 45, former senior managing director of the major consumer loan firm, will receive around ¥200 billion in tax refunds, including interest, a record refund for an individual.
He was gifted the ¥165 billion worth of Dutch-firm stock in 1999 while he was stationed in Hong Kong as a Takefuji executive, and was ordered to pay some ¥133 billion in back tax.
Seeking nullification of the taxation, Takei argued that the gifting of overseas assets to those living abroad was out of the scope of Japanese taxation in 1999.
The government claimed Takei had resided in Hong Kong at that time partly to avoid payment of the gift tax and that his main base of business activities was in Japan. But Takei argued at the top court last month that as he spent around 65 percent of his life in Hong Kong over a period of three years, he was not obliged to pay the tax.
In 2007, the Tokyo District Court repealed the tax agency's order, but in 2008 the Tokyo High Court reversed that decision.